Family Dollar, a Fortune 500 retailer with more than 6,600 stores and $6.8 billion in annual revenues, is in the midst of "Project Accelerate," a three-year transformation that it expects will lead to a better shopping experience for customers, improved productivity of its inventory and enhanced efficiency in its supply chain.

As part of this project, the company is implementing merchandise planning applications from business analytics provider SAS.

To power Project Accelerate, Family Dollar invested in software from the SAS Merchandise Intelligence suite including its Financial Planning and Assortment Planning modules.

"SAS enables the Family Dollar merchandising organization to quickly create integrated merchandise financial plans we can share and adjust collaboratively on an almost real-time basis," said Scott Zucker, vice president of merchandise operations, Family Dollar.

"With the current economy, it is important for us to make inventory adjustments quickly to minimize 'discretionary' risk and maximize 'basic needs' opportunities," said Zucker. "During 2008, the SAS Merchandise Financial Planning solution enabled us to adjust our merchandise assortments much more quickly than in the past. This allowed us to make immediate investments in the consumable categories that our customers need most during these difficult times. Our strong fourth quarter results from June to August in 2008 reflect this mix shift away from more discretionary merchandise."

Family Dollar offers a core assortment of name brand and quality consumable merchandise supplemented by fashion and seasonal apparel offerings.